About el Camino de Santiago

Instead of trying to write a historical background of the Camino, I will provide links to two websites that have already done so:

http://www.csj.org.uk/index.htm
http://wikitravel.org/en/Way_of_St._James

I learned about the Camino in 2007 after reading Conor Grennan’s travel blog on the French portion of the walk. Immediately I was drawn to the physical challenge of a long walk, and the mental and spiritual retreat it might provide. I had been struggling spiritually at the time, and the idea of walking for days on end, alone with God, sounded like a dream.

However, despite the fact that it sounded wonderful, I didn’t think I could actually do it at first. My vision loss seemed like too big of a handicap to overcome. What would I do when it was dark out? How would I manage? A partially-blind woman alone in Spain? It didn’t seem like the best idea.

That didn’t stop me from thinking about it though. Day after day, I day-dreamed about it. One day I told my friend Ann. After explaining that it was a 500-mile walk across Spain, Ann got this far-off look in her eyes and said, “I’ve always wanted to go for a long walk…”

We decided to think about it some more. I took out some books from the library, prayed about it, and finally realized that I had to do it. The pilgrimage simply called to me. I learned about a blind man from Michigan who had walked the Camino and emailed him for his opinion. He enthusiactically encouraged me to do it. So I called Ann and told her I was serious, I was ready to commit, and found out she was too. I made sure she was okay with assisting me when I needed help because of my low vision, and she was.

We finally settled on going in September 2008. Autumn in Spain. We will be able to enjoy harvest season and the transition from summer to fall. Temperatures will hopefully be a bit cooler than they would in the summer, and the path and pilgrim’s hostels should be less crowded.

Somewhere, in a book or blog, I read that a pilgrimage starts the minute you decide to do it. Without having actually set foot in Spain yet, I can tell you that it is absolutely, 100% true. Since the moment I mentally committed to making this dream become a reality, something in me has shifted. Something good. I feel like my soul is slowly awakening. And it feels awesome, in the truest sense of the word.